State leaders OK plan to increase border patrol

AUSTIN - Texas will pay tens of millions of dollars for operations intended to help deal with the influx of Central American children pouring over the border, under an agreement cemented Wednesday by the state's top three officials.

Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus authorized emergency funding of $1.3 million per week for Department of Public Safety missions in Texas border counties - money that will beef up presence of boots on the ground and patrols in the air and water.

The three did not put a final price tag on the new operations but said they would continue through at least the end of the calendar year, which would put state spending on the effort upward of $35 million for the rest of 2014.

Wednesday's deal, hashed out over phone calls among the officials and meetings among senior staffers, comes in response to some 60,000 unaccompanied children and teens who are expected to cross into the Texas border this year.

A stream of unaccompanied children flooding the border has already caused a crisis, overwhelming Border Patrol facilities, sparking debate in Washington and now prodding state officials to make available state funds for what they describe as a failure on behalf of the federal government to secure the border.

"Texas can't afford to wait for Washington to act on this crisis and we will not sit idly by while the safety and security of our citizens are threatened," Perry said in a statement. "Until the federal government recognizes the danger it's putting our citizens in by its inaction to secure the border, Texas law enforcement must do everything they can to keep our citizens and communities safe."

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In a letter signed by all three Texas officials, DPS Director Steven McCraw is given orders to immediately begin what officials call surge operations "to combat the flood of illegal immigration into the state in the absence of adequate federal resources to secure the border."

Perry, Dewhurst and Straus - in the letter to McCraw - go on to blast the federal government for "creating an incentive for families to send their children on a dangerous, and sometimes fatal, journey."

They also acknowledge that Texas troopers and the millions of dollars backing them won't "end the humanitarian issues on the border, nor is it a complete solution to what is ultimately a federal responsibility."

But they write that increased DPS efforts on the border "can reduce crime" and "ensure the safety of Texas citizens and support the strained resources of local law enforcement and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection."

"The federal government has abdicated its responsibility to secure the border and protect this country from the consequences of illegal immigration, but as Texans we know how to lead in areas where Washington has failed," Dewhurst said.

Straus echoed statements about how Texas is being forced to step in due to a lack of abundant federal government action.

"Until the federal government fulfills its duty, it falls on the State of Texas to address these obligations," Straus said in a letter to members of the Texas House.